Well, it's been a total failure

[Vladimir G. Ivanovic]

 I'm running Fedora 13.x86_64 and I've tried various ways of getting a
D compiler to work. None have succeeded.

1. a. I can't install dmd 2.048:

        # rpm -Uvh /downloads/dmd-2.048-0.i386.rpm
        error: Failed dependencies:
           gcc(x86-32) >= 4.2.3 is needed by dmd-2.048-0.i386
   I don't know what package will satisfy this dependency.
   b. dmd is a closed compiler. Not good. I'm really not comfortable
running a compiler for which I don't have access to the source. The
risk of undetected malware is too great.
   c. So, I give up on dmd.

2. I can't run ldc because
   a. The ldc RPM requires Tango, even though this is not an RPM
dependency for ldc, i.e. you can install ldc without any errors.
   b. The installation instructions for Fedora on the LDC web site are
incorrect. "yum install ldc" works, but "yum install tango" doesn't.
"yum install tango-devel" is the correct command. (This is the first
time I've heard of <pkg>-devel without a corresponding <pkg>.)
   c. After I've gotten everything installed, it still doesn't work. I get
        $ ldc hello.d
        hello.d(5): Error: module stdio cannot read file 'std/stdio.d'
   d. OK, so I link /usr/include/d/tango/stdc to
/usr/include/d/tango/std, but it still doesn't work. I get:
        $ ldc hello.d
        hello.d(8): Error: undefined identifier writefln
        hello.d(8): Error: function expected before (), not writefln
of type int
   e. ldc only supports D v1.
   f. All of this is too much for me. I give up on ldc.

3. I can't get gdc to compile.
   a. First I have to get gcc-4.4.4 to compile, but that requires a 4
year old version of automake. I have to downgrade.
   b. After that's fixed, I'm still running into errors that prevent a
build. The errors change from changeset to changeset. So, I'm giving
up on gdc.

Getting a D compiler to run on x86_64 Linux is too hard. I'm giving up
on D.

I'm posting this message not as a plea for help, but to illustrate how
hard it is to get D to run on Fedora.x86_64. The success of D depends
on high quality, open source compilers being available (my belief),
and so far, D doesn't seem to be mature enough to be considered, at
least on Fedora.x86_64.

But, on the plus side, the existence of the book "The D Programming
Language" is a major step in getting D accepted as a serious system
programming language. Maybe installation will improve and D will move
forward.

--- Vladimir

-- 
Vladimir G. Ivanovic                            http://www.leonora.org
+1 650 450 4101                                       vladimir at acm.org


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